An Altered State
by Sidekickwannabe
Summary: For 14 years of my life I was a boy. But now.. I'm a girl. Now, instead of Seth, I have to call myself Serena...


I'm a girl. I can't believe that I'm a girl. For 14 years of my life I was a boy. But now.. I'm a girl. When I first found out that I was not only a girl but stuck forever like this, I freaked. I did. Majorly flipped out. See, I was, until a couple of months ago, an average teenaged boy. I had old copies of "Playboy" hidden under my mattress, beat up my kid brother twice a day and otherwise did all the things boys do.

It's only been a couple of months and I already feel things are changing. Yesterday I actually drooled at the thought of wearing a dress and having a cute guy notice me. Today I fixed my hair and put on makeup, the makeup that had mysteriously appeared in my bedroom, along with all the other girly stuff that any normal girl would have in her bedroom.

Now, instead of Seth, I have to call myself "Serena". And the powers that caused this mess in the first place has made it seem to everyone else in the world that I've always been a girl. My birth certificate now says Serena Tsukino, my parents treat me like they've always had a daughter and all my friends at school think I've always been this way, too. The only problem with this is:

I DON'T WANT TO BE A GIRL!

How did this happen, you ask? Ugh, do I really have to? Okay, see, it all started last Tuesday when I was on my way to school...

Chapter 1

"I'm late!"

It's a common phrase around my house. Because I'm habitually late for everything. I threw off my covers and jumped into my school uniform pants and t-shirt and the jacket that's part of the uniform. A little deodorant, a quick brushing of my teeth and I was downstairs before you could say mouldy sushi.

Downstairs my mom was making pancakes, my favorite breakfast, but I didn't have time to stop and eat. So instead I grabbed a few and scarfed them down as I threw on my shoes and grabbed my schoolbag.

Out on the street, I was making good time until I ran into my least favorite person ever. Darien Chiba. For some reason, we always manage to time our meetings to where I'm in a hurry and he's not. Anyway, he smirked at me like he always does when we see each other on the street. He's always bragging about his muscles, like it's MY fault that I'm 14 and wouldn't know a muscle if it bit me.

And.. I'm hesitant to admit this, but I've always felt this weird connection to him. Like if I were older or he were younger we'd have been pals. But now that I'm a girl.. I actually think I might be attracted to him.. Excuse me while I go puke now..

"Well well, Seth Tsukino. What a surprise." He says this every time and believe me, it's sarcasm in it's most lethal form.

"Look man, I'm in a hurry this morning. Can ya shorten the snide remarks a little today?"

"What? And miss out on all the fun! No way, pipsqueek!"

I threw down my bag and put up my fists. "Alright, Chiba, I've had it! Every day this year you've pushed my buttons and I'm sick of it! You wanna do something about it or will we have to fight!"

Darien chuckled and I wanted to punch him in his sorry mouth. "Hey, now, Junior, calm down! No need to get your panties in a wad!"

"Why you..."

He waved me off. "Later, kid. I've got a life to live and I can't waste it fighting junior high kids."

I growled as he strolled past me. I watched him leave and swore that one day, I would punch his lights out. I sighed as my anger subsided and bent to pick up my bag. As I did so, I happened to glance at my watch. "Damn it!"

This time, though, instead of running at breakneck speeds to school, I already figured I would only kill myself trying to get to school and what a waste of energy that would be since I was already late. So I just walked fast. It was nice, this walking thing. No wonder people actually walked places. What a way to see the world.

As I walked, I started to notice things that were normally blurs actually had real shapes. 'Hey, cute girl. Does she walk this way everyday? Definitely going to have to find out..' I passed an alley.. "Hmm, kids torturing a cat.. WHAT! Hey, those kids are torturing a cat!'

I got angry again. I don't get mad often, but there are 3 major things that tend to get me real mad, real quick: old people injustice, innocent kid injustice and animal cruelty. So I stormed into the alley, pumping myself up to really scare these kids.

"Hey, leave that cat alone!"

They weren't much younger than I was and actually had the guts to snicker at me. "Who are you, the SPCA!" One jeered at me.

"Just someone who hates animal cruelty and that's exactly what was happening here. Now beat it! Before I do to you what you were trying to do to this cat!" They didn't move til I grabbed one of them by the collar and shoved him out of the alley. He kept running and his cronies followed.

I smiled. Victory is always sweet. I moved to pick up the cat and it backed away, hissing at me.

"Hey, kitty, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. Hey, are you hurt?" I pulled the bandaid off its forehead and was really surprised. "A crescent moon? On your forehead? What kind of freakish owner would do that? Geez, no wonder you ran away.."

Before I could do anything more, it scratched my hand and ran away. I looked at my watch. Those damn kids. Now first period was almost halfway over. At this point I'll be lucky not to get detention for a week.

I doozed through school, once I got there. The only high point was during lunch when I was talked to Molly. She always seemed to make my day a little better. Molly is my best friend. Normally guys and girls don't hang around each other in my school unless they're dating. But we're the exception. I used to like her and we tried dating but it was too weird so now we're just pals.

After lunch, the school day dragged and I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to watch the clock. Luckily, Miss Haruna was in a good mood because of a good date and I got out of detention.

When I got home, I wanted to collapse on my bed and sleep for five or six hours. But I couldon't. My mind was strangely alert and I decided to something that I almost never do: my homework.

"I had expected a girl for this role, but if this is all I have to work with, I guess you'll have to do."

"Who said that?" I looked around, thinking my kid brother was playing another trick on me. Then I turned around to the window. The cat I'd rescued earlier stood on the windowsill, its tail twitching slightly.

I narrowed my eyes at the intruder for a second, the broke into a grin. "Hey, kitty. Decided to follow me home, huh?"

"It was easy enough to find. The dust from this morning's dash to school hadn't yet settled." The sarcasm was clear. But why she was talking, wasn't.

"Wait a second. You're a cat. Cats don't talk."

"This one does. But I am no ordinary cat. Seth.. listen to me. My name is Luna. I come from a very far away place and have searched the entire planet for YOU."

"Me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, you."

"And why in the world would a talking cat wish to find ME?"

"Because you're a warrior. From the Moon. You're here to save the planet!"

I looked at her for a second before bursting out into laughter. When I had recovered, she was looking at me like she was really annoyed. I rolled my eyes. "Give me a break. A talking cat is one thing. The fact that I'm a warrior from the Moon is another."

She jumped down onto my bed and then did a backflip. Out of nowhere, a locket landed in my hands. I looked at her, really confused at this point.

"Hold that in the air and say.."

"It's a locket. A GIRL'S locket." I wanted to puke.

"HOLD that in the AIR and SAY 'Moon Prism Power'."

"Moon prism power? You can't be serious. Why would a warrior from the Moon say something as lame as that? Can't I say something else?"

Luna frowned. "Those are the words. They haven't been changed since that locket was created a thousand years ago so I suggest you get used to saying them!"

I sighed, wondering how long I was going to be stuck with the smart-mouthed feline standing in front of me. I raised my hand a little and grumbled, "Moon prism power." Nothing happened. "Hey, it's not working!"

"Hold your hand HIGH and YELL." Luna's tail twitched impatiently.

"Moon Prism Power!"

All at once, it hit me. Power surged through my veins like electricity. My body moved on its own, I had no control over it, as if it knew exactly what to do. For what felt like an eternity, my body moved. It was the best feeling in the world. After a while, though, I felt something different but I just couldn't stop and see it. Then, just as quickly as it started, it was over.

The next second, I was standing in my tiny room. I walked, feeling the new clothing that had appeared out of nowhere onto my body. The first thing I ntocied was my legs were incredibly bare. I was wearing a skirt. This was not good. I ran to the mirror in a panic. I was wearing a white body suit with a short blue skirt and over my chest - wait a second.. BREASTS! I have breasts! I wheeled around to look at Luna.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME! I'm a GIRL!"

Luna smiled. "Of course you're a girl. You're Sailor Moon. All the Sailor Senshi are women. Besides, we can't very well have a boy running around in that getup, now can we?"

I ran my fingers through my hair - or tried to since it was now longer and pulled back into buns, and paced in front of Luna. "You don't understand. I'm a boy! Not a girl! My name is Seth! It is NOT S-S- Samantha!"

"Serena," Luna corrected me.

I stopped pacing. "You said that way too easily. What do you know that you aren't telling?"

"You, Seth, well, we'll call you that until you get used to being a girl again - "

"Again!"

Luna chuckled. "Not in this life, I'm afraid. You see, over a thousand years ago, you were known as Princess Serenity. After a terrible battle, you and your court were sent here to the future and reincarnated."

"Just tell me this, okay?" Luna nodded. "Why wasn't I born a girl in this life?"

I found myself taking all this pretty mess about being reincarnated really well. I was still having a hard time being a girl, though, and I wanted answers.

Luna shrugged. "I wish I knew, Seth. I suppose it was an accident. Once we found out there'd been a mistake we knew we couldn't undo it. That is, until you transformed. When you transformed, you willingly accepted your destiny as Sailor Moon and the Moon Princess. I'm afraid you're stuck like that."

Chapter 2

"Don't do it, man. Whatever the cat says, don't do it."

The black haired kid sitting in front of me eyed the red and gold stick in his hand and his gaze went from me to Luna and back.

"I'm not kidding. She's about to tell you that you're a warrior, reincarnated from a thousand years ago. Then she'll tell you to hold that thing in your hand in the air and yell some magic words. Trust me, pal, if you like your life the way it is, put the stick down and tell us to get lost."

He scratched his head for a second and then studied the transformation wand. "I don't understand."

"What's there to understand? Just put the stick down and run away as fast as you can."

"What is this, some kind of prank?"

Luna took this opportunity to speak up. "It is no prank, I assure you. My colleague here has no faith in my words. Ray.."

Ray Hino had backed up and looked like he was on the verge of climbing the nearest fence to get away from us. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" He looked at me strangely. "Are you, like, into ventrilquism or something because I swear that cat just talked to me."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," I said with a sigh. "Don't listen to her. She's a regular nut, that one, and if you value your manhood, if you know what's good for you, you'll send us packing. Like right now."

"No, Seth, stop. Listen to me, Ray, this is no joke and yes, I am speaking. I know you trust this. You need only think about the recent disappearances that have been going on to know they aren't of this world." Ray looked surprised and still highly confused. Luna saw this and used it to her advantage. "I know you're psychic and that you've sensed something different around here."

Ray sighed in resignation and I knew it wouldn't be too long til he'd be a girl for good. "Yeah, I sensed something. But what does this have to do with me?"

It was just the thing Luna wanted to hear. "You, along with Serena here," I bristled at the name, "are a warrior. You are the warrior of Mars."

"But if I was a warrior, wouldn't I be fully aware of it? Not only that but wouldn't I be doing something about what's been going on?"

"Knowledge of your past life and your abilities have been laying dormant. That 'stick,'" Luna glared at me as she spoke the word, "you hold in your hand is a transformation wand. In order to awaken your abilities as the warrior Mars; all you'll need to do is hold it high in the air and yell, really yell, 'Mars Power.'"

I'd been quiet for the last few minutes but looking at the kid seriously consider what Luna had just told him tipped me off and I laid into him again. "Don't do it, man, don't do it! If you say those words, everything in your life will change and I mean EVERYTHING. Look at me. I used to be a guy. 100 guy. Then I met this scruffy mutt here and like an idiot, I listened to her. Now look at me. I'm a girl! And there ain't no going back!"

"But someone has to stop -"

"No! They don't! Things are just fine!"

"But I've felt them -"

"Hormones!"

I was doing everything I could short of ripping the wand from his hands to keep this kid from making the same mistake I had. I knew it made a funny picture; Luna standing there with an all too knowing look on her face, Ray looking completely lost and me, a boy turned girl, yelling at him to not believe us. But Ray.. well, something inside him seemed to recognize this as an omen or something and he did the exact opposite of what I had been yelling at him to do. He held the wand in the air and yelled the words.

It was a blast of fire so bright it hurt my eyes, but it only lasted for less than a second.

The next thing I knew, there he stood, in an outfit similar to the one I had found myself in. The only difference was the color combo of red and purple and he had high heels on. Oh, and his short black hair was now down to his thighs and he had breasts. I sat down on the steps as he ran inside and braced myself for it to come.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Chapter 3

The death glare I was receiving was unsettling. We had decided to try and make the best of our situation and go out, hoping that maybe a bit of food - or a couple well placed lightning bolts - would help calm us down.

I shrugged and shoved a fry into my mouth. "Hey man, I warned you, didn't I?"

"I didn't think you were serious!" Raye grumbled. She lookd down at her chest. "They're so big, are they supposed to be this big?"

"How should I know? It took me an hour just to get the bra on right!"

I stopped for a second, then leaned on the table with my elbows. "So uh.. can I touch 'em?"

I didn't see the milkshake til it was too late.

"Raye, why did you do that to me!" I squealed before I could stop myself. I stopped cleaning he milkshake off my face and froze for a second, not completely sure what I'd said.

Raye immediately burst into laughter. "You should giggle have seen your laugh face guffaw! You sounded just like a girl!"

I scowled. "You idiot, I AM a girl! And so are YOU!" I reached out and pinched one of Raye's boobs as hard as I could.

"Ow! Serena, why'd you do that! It hurt!" Tears were welling up in her eyes.

I laughed. "Serves you right!"

Raye stopped crying and smacked me on the head. Before I knew it, we were both halfway on the table, slapping and clawing the hell out of each other.

"Ah, girl on girl.. Every man's wet dream."

We froze. Raye had a chunk of my hair and I had her arm in between my teeth, but I managed to see who it was who'd spoken.

My stomach turned in disgust.

Luke Kino was perhaps one of the most egotistical men I'd ever met. He was the most girl crazy pyscho based only on the fact that he'd once dated a model, and since then has only ever dated girls that reminded him of her - which is, in essence, every girl he sees.

He slid into the booth beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, forcing Raye and I to let go of the bits of each other we'd been holding onto for the last 5 minutes. I wanted to both throw up and castrate the guy. He was smooth, I do have to admit. But I had been a girl for only about 24 hours so I wasn't falling for it. A week later I still get ill to my stomach thinking about it.

"So... Which one of you little ladies is going to give me the pleasure of a date?"

Raye and I shot each other a look of disgust across the table. I reached over and removed Luke's hand from my shoulder.

"Thanks but.. I'd rather eat slugs. Have a nice day!"

Luke looked kind of insulted but not surprised. Apparently the stalker thing just wasn't working for him. So he saved his wounded pride by not pushing it and got up and left the cafe.

Luna, hidden in my backpack, got my attention while Raye was suddenly trying not to lose his milkshake.

"Serena - "

"Seth."

"Yes, yes, Seth. There's something about that young man. I think he may be our next Senshi!"

I deadpanned. "So you want me to go convince this slick Willy that he's really Sailor Your-Anus? No way. Nu-uh. You do your own dirty work, Luna. I think I've done more than my fair share in all this."

"If he turns into a woman he'll stop hitting on you.." Luna's voice was extra sweet.

Luna grinned.

"Hey, Luke, wait up!"

He was walking slowly down the sidewalk, his hands in his pocket, listening to a walkman. I had to yell when I got closer to get his attention. He stopped, turned around and took off his headphones.

I tried to get into girly girl mode, remembering everything from the late late night tv programs I'd seen. I batted my eyes, jutted out my hip and put my hand on it and softened my voice.

"Look.. I'm really sorry about that back there. I thought you meant.. both of us at once. I uh.. don't like to share."

It didn't take him but a second to break out into the most fake smiles I have ever laid eyes on. His smile was seriously 100 watt, I thought I was going to go blind from it. But then he put his arm around my should - I was shuddering on the inside - and we started walking, with Luna following close behind us.

He took me to this cool little hangout place. It was a karaoke/pizza joint and I couldn't figure out which was worse- the singing or the food. We sat in the booth, ate some bad pizza, listened to bad karaoke and I kept making sure Matt's hands were where I could see them at all times.

The first time he leaned in for a kiss, I played it cool and told him I don't kiss on the first date. Which is true since technically I don't. In reality I've never had a real date so I wouldn't know what I'd do.

The second time he did it, I just started talking.

"Hey, uh, guess what?"

He looked annoyed but played along anyway. "What?"

"I've got something I need you to do for me.." I batted my eyelashes for added effect.

"Anything for you, cutie."

I blushed and smiled sweetly and then slapped the transformation wand that appeared out of nowhere into the palm of his hand.

"I need you to raise that thing into the air, okay, and yell really loud 'Jupiter Star Power. Something really cool will happen when you do it."

He gave me a blank stare.

"I promise! It's magic! I've done it before and it's the biggest rush of your life. Trust me, you'll never be the same again."

On the outside I was sitting here in this tiny booth with a man I hated and talking sweet to him. On the inside, I was laughing my ass off. I couldn't wait to see this guy get what he deserved. So I batted my eyelashes a couple more times, then jumped up and took his hand and led him outside to the alleyway.

I looked around me to make sure there was no one around. "Come on, do it! Do it now!"

He still didn't look convinced.

"Please?" I begged as I poked out my bottom lip in a fake poke.

"Oh, okay. What is it I have to say again?"

I squealed - as best as I could since I'd never squealed before - and jumped up and down. Once I calmed down I repeated the instructions, then sat back and watched as the fun began..

Chapter 4

"Geez, you didn't have to hit me! Couldn't you have done what I did and just screamed like hell?" I grumbled as I touched the tender area of my jaw.

Lita, aka Luke, rubbed her knuckles and shrugged. "I already apologized once, man. I didn't mean to hit you, I swear, it was just an instinct!"

"Well, the upside of this is," Raye said as she watched the two of us, "at least now you know you can take a punch!"

I shot her a death glare. "It's NOT funny, Raye! I coulda been killed! What if I had fallen and hit my head on some glass or something!"

"You aren't exactly an example of coordination, Serena. God, how many times did you trip over your own feet on the way here to the temple? If you haven't died yet, nothing will kill you." Lita said simply.

For a few minutes, no one said anything. For a bunch of guys who used to be girls, there wasn't a whole lot we wanted to talk about. Until Lita let out the biggest burp I have ever heard.

"Ew, gross!"

Lita shrugged. "It's not healthy to keep it in."

"So? God, do you have to be so crude?"

Lita and Raye stopped what they were doing and stared at me with their mouths open. It took me a second to realize why they were so dumbfounded. When I finally did get it, I blushed and then laughed awkwardly. "Hey, I've been a chick longer than you guys have. It was bound to happen eventually... right?"

It was quiet again.

"Anyone up for some shopping?"

Lita and Raye couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Chapter 5

We headed to the local shopping district in Juuban and naturally went toward anything with gadgets and games. But after a while, we all kind of difted away from them and into the clothing stores. I can honestly say that I was on autopilot. I had no control over why my body did a complete 180 at the men's department and headed straight for the women's. It just happened. And it just happened to Lita and Raye too.

On the way, I spotted some shoes that had caught my eye. On my right was a blonde haired guy looking at women's shoes. It kind of creeped me out. I mean, I'm not a homophobe or anything but when was the last time you saw a teenaged boy checking out girls' shoes? Before I could look away, he caught my eye and moved closer.

"Cute, aren't they?"

I grunted, avoiding his gaze.

"Are you looking for yourself or for a friend?"

"Neither."

He grinned. "Just browsing, huh? Me too."

"Yeah."

I turned and headed to the women's department to find Raye and Lita. But the kid just wouldn't leave me alone.

"That's a really cute sweater you have."

"Uh.. thanks."

"Where'd you get it?"

I shrugged. "Don't know."

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess I'll let you go.."

As soon as he was out of earshot, Luna immediately piped up. "Seth.."

"No, no, " I said, interrupting her, "don't tell me. He's a Senshi. And now I have to find him and apologize for being mean and con him into transforming and once again, ruin another life. Correct?"

Luna frowned. "Well, you could have left out the 'ruining another life' part. I do not consider what I'm doing to be 'ruining' anyone's life. I'm saving them! Your's and Lita's and Raye's and his so that YOU can save the world!"

"Okay okay, geez, forget I said what I said. Just point me in the direction of where he went!"

Luna pointed to the left. "Hurry, Seth!"

I headed in the direction that Luna pointed and found him in the men's shirts section, though he didn't look really all that thrilled to be there.

"Excuse me.. but you complimented my sweater a few minutes ago.. I was wondering if you could help me pick out an outfit."

His eyes lit up in excitement as I continued with my lie. "You seem to know a lot about clothes and I uh.. have a date tonight with my boyfriend. Can you help me?" I was immediately pulled toward the opposite end of the store.

After two hours and 10 tops, 8 skirts, 7 pairs of pants, and 4 pairs of shoes later, he had picked out what he felt was the "best outfit ever." And it was time to get our Senshi..

"Hey, thank you for all your help," I said as I paid for my new clothes. "My.. er.. boyfriend will be so thrilled." I produced the gold and orange transformation wand. "Here. It's kind of a thank you for what you did today."

Michael looked at the want for a second. "Wow, it's really pretty. What is it?"

"It's really cool. To use it, all you have to do is raise your hand in the air and yell 'Venus Star Power."

"Really? And what happens after that?"

I knew I was guessing as I replied, "It'll make all your dreams come true."

"Venus Star Power!"

I'd now seen this happen three times and I had been completely unsurprised by the reactions of the people to whom it happened.

This was anything but new: "I'm a girl!"

But I was not expecting what came next.

"I'm a girl! My prayers have been answered!"

It was the first time in my life I'd ever fainted.

Chapter 6

I came to feeling someone slapping my cheeks. Hard. I opened my eyes. Raye was kneeling over me.

"Are you sure she's okay?" Our newest Senshi asked nervously.

Raye gave my cheek one more slap. "Oh yeah, she'll be fine. Come on, Serena, stop scaring our new friend here. She's worried she killed you."

"Nope, I'm still alive..unfortunately." I raised myself to a sitting position. "So how's everything feeling?"

Mina sighed. "It's wonderful. I always knew I was in the wrong body and now I don't have that problem before."

"So.. you've always been into.. girly things?" Lita asked tentatively.

"Most of my life. My dad tried to get me to play with action figures when I was younger because I always wanted to play with the Barbies."

Not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable two minutes into meeting each other, Raye and I both stood. "Okay, I'm wiped. Let's go get some coffee and then call it an afternoon, okay?"

Chapter 8

At the coffee shop we were able to relax a little and actually started joking about what had happened to us. We all agreed it was definitely the weirdest thing to ever happen but not completely the worst. We all kind of shared some kind of depressing moment in our lives, though my life was less dramatic than the others. We were getting into some good obscene jokes when our last Senshi made his appearance.

He was of average height but had shocking blue hair. People should not walk and read big books at the same time. Because he was buried in his textbook and didn't notice the table until he'd bumped into it and knocked his coffee all over Lita.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" she snarled at him.

He blushed and immediately bent to help clean up. "I am so sorry. I really didn't mean to do that. How can I make it up to you? I'll pay for your dry cleaning, of course or a new shirt..."

"Calm down, it's just my school uniform. I'll get another one tomorrow."

"Seth..." Luna whispered.

I nodded and motioned to a nearby chair. "Hey, pull up a seat. We don't mind sharing the table."

He hesitated. "Ar.. Are you sure?"

We all nodded. "The more the happier," Mina said.

"Um.. excuse me but isn't it 'the more the merrier'?" He asked.

"Potato, tomato.." Mina waved it off.

"Oh no, I can't stay!" Adam, the kid, had just looked at his watch and was gathering his bookbag and book.

"No, wait, come here. I have something for you before you go."

Adam looked at me wearily. "It's not a prank is it? Because a prank disguised as a joke isn't really a joke."

I smiled. "It's not a joke. Seriously." I held out the transformation wand. "See, this thing here, it's supposed to help you learn faster. All you have to do is raise it up and yell 'Mercury Star Power'. Trust me, I did it, my friends here did it and we all survived."

"Barely.." Raye grumbled.

I shot her a 'shut the hell up' look and continued. "I promise, nothing bad is going to happen."

"Oh.. okay. Okay, yeah. I'll do it. Mercury Star Power!"

The flash of light was blue tinted this time and even though it was a short transformation, it was still incredible to watch.

"Hmm.. You were right. Nothing bad did happen except for the fact that I seem to have under gone some kind of gender change. This will definitely warrant some further investigation. Can it be undone?"

I shook my head. "Unfortunately, it's permanent. Apparently, girls, we've all been sent here to save the world. And as girls is how we'll do it."

"Any ideas about how this will affect the rest of the world?"

"Well apparently now that you've become a girl, everyone will think you've always been that way. Everything in your bedroom, all your clothes and all, has been changed to the belongings of a girl. Is that everything, Luna?"

She nodded. "I have a bit more to tell you all about your pasts, Seth. You and Raye already know this but the other three don't. Amy, you are Sailor Mercury, from the planet Mercury. Lita, you're Sailor Jupiter and Mina, you're Sailor Venus. Both from those same planets. You are all what we call the Sailor Senshi, warriors from a by-gone era called the Silver Millenium.

"It was a peaceful time and, I believe, the best of all mankind's potential was reached. We had achieved, on the Moon, techology that has never been recreated here on Earth. We had lifestyles that enabled us to live long healthy lives. It was a good time.

"Until someone got very jealous of our leader, Queen Serenity - your mother, Seth. She was jealous of your mother's power as Queen, which was encompassed in the Silver Imperium Crystal. This woman, named Beryl, guided by her growing hatred for everything Serenity and her Senshi represented, built up an army. And it was with this army that she attacked the Moon Kingdom. She and her army completely destroyed the Moon Kingdom. Serenity used the last of her energy to send those who had survived to the future.

"I was sent back and Mina, your cat Artemis was there as well. We are the only ones who have memory of what happened that terrible night on the Moon. So we have been searching for 14 years all over the planet for the Sailor Senshi, YOU. We were lucky found you when we did because we believe that evil that possessed Beryl is back and about to attack again. Once the attacks begin, they will continue until all the Earth has sucumbed to the power of evil. And it is you five young women who will be responsible to fight it."

Luna sighed. "I'm sorry that the burden of saving the world has fallen onto your shoulders so suddenly, but this is how it must be. If you fail, we will all perish."

No one said anything for a few minutes as we let her words sink in. For the past few days, all I'd ever thought about was the fact that my entire life as I knew it previously had changed, and not for the better I had thought. But listening to Luna, hearing what happened in my long ago past, I gained a new respect for what I was doing and why.

"So what do we do now? I've transformed a total of one time and I have to say, I didn't exactly enjoy the results."

"Wouldn't be good to get a feel for our powers?" Amy asked.

Mina agreed. "I want to know what kind of power I'm capable of doing.."

"And pushing it's limits? I'm all for that," Lita grinned as she joined in.

Raye grinned. "And who knows what limits there'll be when we really get a hang of things."

It was fine for a few minutes, all of us talking about our powers and what kind of attacks we'd have and all. Then we noticed that the coffee house was totally empty. Books and bags and unfinished newspapers lay scattered around empty tables with half-drunk coffee. A shiver of.. something, I don't know if it was fear or excitement or both, went down my back.

"Looks like we're about to get a chance to test that theory." Mina said in a small voice, her eyes huge.

"Why's that?"

"Because I think I just figured out why there's no one here." She pointed behind us.

We turned around. About ten feet behind us, sitting on the counter, was the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life. It looked like some weird science experiment gone wrong, as though someone had been trying to make some human-insect hybrid.

It stood about 8 feet tall with long legs and four arms. It's body was black like a skinsuit, and on its back were these red rounded shells with black spots, like a ladybug. The shells were repeated on its shoulders and arms, making it look like armor.

We were all so surprised that for a second, no one moved.

"Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh! That's all you can say!"

I shrugged. "RUN comes immediately to mind.."

It was with that comment that we bolted out of there and took cover in the nearest alley.

My mind was racing. "What do we do, what do we do!"

"You must transform and fight it," Luna demanded.

""But we've only transformed once and we don't know HOW to fight!"

"That's it, we're dead! Oh god, we're all gonna die!"

Lita shot Raye a look. "Great, Raye, now we have to calm her down!"

"Hey, I was just stating the obvious!"

"It doesn't matter. That thing is going to beat us and then we're dead meat! We're so dead, it's not even funny. Who's volunteering to be the appetizer?"

Amy, calm and collected as always, walked up to me and slapped me as hard as she could. "Calm down! The first thing we need to do is to transform. Is everyone in agreement with that?"

We all sounded our approval.

"Great. We'll transform and then we'll see what kind of power we have to deal with." Her hand shot up in the air and we all followed suit.

This time, the transformation wasn't as drastic. I still didn't like the idea that I had no control over my body during this but figured I'd get used to it in time. I hadn't lied when I said that transforming is a rush. It really is. All that power surging through you, it's a total high.

After transforming, we all headed back to the cafe'. The monster was still there but it had found a toy in the form of some clerk who'd been hiding in a storage closet. But we didn't know what to do next.

It was Jupiter who stepped up first.

"Alright, time for a test drive. Jupiter Thunder Crash!"

From all around her, a bolt of electricity came, hitting the monster dead on.

While we were all watching in amazement, Mercury chuckled to herself. "Clever, very clever.. Jupiter, lightning attack.. So now I assume that as Mercury I'll have some kind of water attack and Mars'll have fire. But I'm not sure about Venus or Sailor Moon.."

Meanwhile the monster had turned from its victim and snarled. Out of nowhere, it shot red and black shells at us, making us duck and cover.

Venus rolled to a stop. "Good one, Jupiter, I think you made it mad."

"As opposed to its former good nature?"

Mars stood. "My turn. Mars Fire Ignite!" 

A huge flame burst from her fingers and into the monster's side. 

"Whoa."

Mercury was alarmed. "Are you hurt!"

Mars grinned. "Hell no," she said. "That was freaking incredible!"

"Guess that's my cue." Venus said after dodging another round. "Venus Crescent Beam Smash!"

I watched in awe as a beam of light and energy burst from Venus' finger.

"Mercury Bubbles Blast!"

A whole bunch of magically enhanced bubbles flew at the monster, which retaliated by opening its two shells on its back and letting loose a hailstorm of exploding shells.

I was on the verge of panicking. Nothing was working on this thing! If something didn't happen soon, we were goners for sure.

"Mercury! Tap your left earring!" Luna yelled.

Confused, Mercury did as instructed. "It's a computer," she exclaimed as blue tinted shades came down from her tiara. After a second, she nodded.

"Okay, Sailor Moon, I get what's going on now. What you need to do is aim your attack very carefully. Strike at its vulnerable spot, its armpit on the right side, just under the wing!"

I was dumbfounded. "You don't actually expect me to fight that thing, do you! No way!"

Luna frowned. "You must finish this, Sailor Moon!"

"But I'm gonna die!"

"We're all going to be here beside you," Venus said. "If you miss one of us can cover you."

"But I don't wanna!"

"Knock it off, Sailor Moon! Geez, if this is the way you fight, we might as well hand over the planet to the bad guys tonight!"

I nodded. "Okay, that's fine. Have a nice life."

I moved to get out of there but Jupiter's arm got in the way of my exit. "Oh no you don't!"

"Okay, okay," I said in defeat. "But if I die, I'm so haunting you guys forever!"

Mars gave me a hard push. "I think you'll survive."

"And if you don't," Venus added cheerily, "I've always wanted my own poltergeist!"

"Gee, thanks for that nice little pep talk! Moon Tiara Magic!"

Once more, my body moved on its own. My hand reached up to my forehead and removed my tiara. I spun around a couple of times before launching the tiara like a discus. It hit right where I wanted it to and the monster went down screaming until it turned into a pile of dust and blew away.

We went over to where it had stood.

"Wow."

"Yeah." Venus nodded.

"Hey guys," we all loved over at Mercury. "We just beat our first monster! We won!"

"And Nobody died," Mars added sarcastically.

"We rock," Jupiter yelled. "Hey.. I'm bushed. I've got some homemade cheesecake at my apartment that I'm craving. Anyone interested in helping me eat it?"

We all said yes and quickly detransformed.

I grinned as Lita put her arm around my shoulder.

"You know, guys, I believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship.."

Chapter 9

Okay, so I'm still a girl after all this. And I'm likely to remain that way forever, barring another freak time travel accident. The magic that took hold the minute I transformed started working immediately, so quickly that I didn't have too much time to question it, to fight it. In my mind I still feel like a boy, that I still think like one. Yet at the same time, I don't. In the same instant that I react like a boy, the magic overrides it and I react like it wants me to. It's completely out of my control, no matter what I do. But I figure I'm still pretty much the same person now that I was before, considering that I was actually a girl in my past life, too. I also gained four pretty cool friends, even including Raye. So as far as life changing events go, mine could definitely be worse.

End

AN: The last spoken line is from Casablanca - great movie. There are three lines/jokes that were stolen from fanfics many years ago by writers who are much more talented than I am in writing humor. I originally "stole" them because I thought they were too good to have forgotten. If any of those are yours, let me know and I'll credit it to you.

The whole idea for this started out as a fic request by someone who's name I have long forgotten. But I had kept what I originally wrote for them and kept adding to it. Half of this is old stuff, the other half is just written in the last three weeks.

Also, a dear friend of mine says this sounds like Cheeky Angel. I've never seen it so I have no idea how it could be similar. But regardless, any similarities between this fic and that anime or any other fic out there, is strictly coincidental. 


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